Chester Zoo team to build orangutan bridges in Borneo

A team from Chester Zoo will join conservationists in Malaysian Borneo shortly this time to help construct special "orangutan bridges".

The structures are designed to allow the animals to move around in an area with the intention of has be converted into bitty by deforestation.

They will incorporate equipment the zoo uses in its orangutan enclosed space.

Marc Ancrenaz, co-founder of the Kinabatangan Orang-utan Conservation Project, is leading the venture.

Chester Zoo's notch Davis explained: "When Marc came to the zoo, he noticed with the intention of we had this webbing material with the intention of we used pro our enclosed space

Dr Davis, who will take part in the Borneo expedition understood with the intention of, pro orangutans, "we're restricted in the equipment we can aid, since they end everything".

The tough polyester webbing material with the intention of the zoo uses to get on to swings and hammocks in its enclosed space, appear to be "orangutan-proof".

"It's a very strong material that's used pro well-built," understood Dr Davis. "And it's really hardy so it doesn't rot."

Fragmented forest

Mr.Ancrenaz is a wildlife vet based by a meadow station in a village called Sukau, He and his colleagues be inflicted with been building the bridges pro the continue five years.

They undertook the project with studies showed with the intention of the community orangutan population had been bitty into 20 sub-populations isolated from all other by vast tracts of palm smear with oil plantations, roads, villages, and rivers.

Unlike many other ape species, orangutans cannot swim, so as well as the waterway being an blocked barrier, logging activities be inflicted with disrupted the tree canopy higher than less important waterway tributaries, making these impracticable to thwart.

Dr Davis told BBC Nature: "[The take aim of the bridges] is to cover the drainage channels and tributaries with the intention of occur from the palm smear with oil plantations."

The team will head to Borneo in October and hope to support the bring about in the region in the long-term.

"This is solely a initially stage - we're vacant to try uncommon designs," understood Dr Davis.

"The agonize is with the intention of the forest made known here has been so bitty with the intention of the orangutans can't move around by all."

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